The big reveal and 'hint' at next years event was the return of Ultron in Avengers 12.1. In typical Bendis fashion, the way in which he's brought back acknowledges Annihilation: Conquest but not Slott's Mighty Avengers run.

This isn't a massive surprise as Bendis set this up earlier in his Avengers run with the chalkboard

Scans from 12.1 are below.

Spoiler!!! Click to Read!:

Spoiler!!! Click to Read!:

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Originally Posted by Charlie Boy

Ya know, I bet Geoff Johns respites the Lantern's oath while he's climaxing. And if he doesn't, he's reading this now and putting it in his day planner

Well.... I'd be annoyed but it'd help me out in the bindings that I do. I'm still figuring out whether or not to include Mighty Avengers in my Dark Reign binds because it doesn't influence anything, but I always felt the Ultron/Wasp deal was too important to ignore. Nothing's ever come of the Wasp story and if Ultron's ignored then I might just leave them out and bind them separately without New, Dark, or Initiative.

This particular continuity flub isn't too bad, to be honest. It's Ultron. He can upload his mind to anything. Maybe he sent out multiple copies of his mind when he was destroyed in Conquest; then the Mighty Avengers version and this one would just be two versions existing simultaneously. That could be a cool idea for an event: ULTRON WAR!

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"This I grant to you: You may tell your grandchildren that you stood for a time against the mighty Thor."
- Marvel Heroes

Yeah, it looks like he's gotten a bit lazy with his style. I excused it on Fantastic Four, when I first noticed it, because I figured he was shooting to keep a monthly schedule so of course the quality would dip a bit. But I can't imagine he's got any deadline problems now, when months pass and we never see his name attached to anything save a cover here or there.

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"This I grant to you: You may tell your grandchildren that you stood for a time against the mighty Thor."
- Marvel Heroes

"I'm... I think I want... Yeah, I'm, I want to destroy the humans. All of them. All of the humans, I want to destroy them. Because... uh... well, they're, they're, they're terrible, is what they are. And they deserve it. So I'm going to give them what, you know... I'm going to destroy them."

Hitch's work on JLA was also excellent.

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"This I grant to you: You may tell your grandchildren that you stood for a time against the mighty Thor."
- Marvel Heroes

It is interesting that Bendis decided to run with ANNIHILATION CONQUEST from Abnett & Lanning, who just so happen to be the next guys on NEW MUTANTS, but ignore Slott & Gage's work on MIGHTY AVENGERS, which was more recent and finishing out a series he launched. Is it just a quirk? Some vindictiveness? "DnA" having more editorial clout despite Slott being the big ASM guy now?

At any rate, I won't read it, so Bendis can make Ultimate a Chicken-Cow in AVENGERS and it won't matter. AVENGERS ACADEMY is my main Avenger title and damn it, it satisfies the hell out of me.

"I'm... I think I want... Yeah, I'm, I want to destroy the humans. All of them. All of the humans, I want to destroy them. Because... uh... well, they're, they're, they're terrible, is what they are. And they deserve it. So I'm going to give them what, you know... I'm going to destroy them."

Im fairly curious about this. In theory an event centered around Ultron would be epic, but Bendis is hit or miss with these things. And yeah Hitch hasn't been the same since Ultimates. Part of it is i think no one besides Millar knows how to really bring out Hitch's strengths as an artist. Also I dont think his style is particularly suited towards the 616 marvel, for example his ultimate Cap is badass, his 616 Cap looks weird.

Other than the awful cover, I actually liked Hitch's work on "New Avengers Finale".

Also, while I would not put it past Bendis to ignore Slott's Ultron story, keep in mind they've been hinting a little bit at him coming back with some new plan in "Academy", whenever they ask if Jocasta is loyal to Hank Pym or Ultron. Just keeping the slightest amount of optimism alive.

Other than the awful cover, I actually liked Hitch's work on "New Avengers Finale".

Also, while I would not put it past Bendis to ignore Slott's Ultron story, keep in mind they've been hinting a little bit at him coming back with some new plan in "Academy", whenever they ask if Jocasta is loyal to Hank Pym or Ultron. Just keeping the slightest amount of optimism alive.

Technically, Ultron sometimes "splits off" and can revive from different sources and locations. There was a spare Ultron head/body left in California that popped up for the first arc of RUNAWAYS volume 2, after all.

Thus, Ultron can technically revive in both locations without it both being coordinated. He's like a virus that re-emerges at random intervals. I guess.

Anybody that's remotely interested in this needs to be reminded that we all practically danced in the streets when Kang was announced as the antagonist for the first Avengers arc and we all know how that went........

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Originally Posted by C. Lee

This is a message board...no one killed your mother or had sex with your dog.....try to move on in life.

But on the other hand, some of us cringed when we heard Bendis would basically have free reign with Asgard in Avengers: Prime, and then he went and wrote a pretty solid mini-series (aside from Cap totally cheating on Sharon). That's the thing with Bendis: he's not consistently terrible, so you never know what to expect. He's a wily one.

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"This I grant to you: You may tell your grandchildren that you stood for a time against the mighty Thor."
- Marvel Heroes

Anybody that's remotely interested in this needs to be reminded that we all practically danced in the streets when Kang was announced as the antagonist for the first Avengers arc and we all know how that went........

I've liked Dark Avengers, Siege was rather bleh (needed 1 extra issue for sure) and i found Secret Invasion as a cool action story but Leinil's art was the main thing for me. I like Bryan Hitch's art and yeah Bendis seems to be a hit and miss but all i'm really asking for is the Avengers in a good portrayal and a big action festival like Secret Invasion.

__________________"I'm not always hooked on a feeling but when i am, i'm high on believing!"Thoughts & Rambles

Marvel made SIEGE 4 issues on purpose because people were complaining about long events. And there was a month delay between #2 and 3 I believe. I don't think it needed another issue. SIEGE was so action heavy a #5 would have knocked off it's balance. If you were reading Stark Disassembled at the time it was a nice buildup to SIEGE and flowed nicely into the event.

I hated Secret Invasion, it was like backward-writing.

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Quote:

Originally Posted by C. Lee

This is a message board...no one killed your mother or had sex with your dog.....try to move on in life.